


Star Light, Star Bright

by predilection



Category: Kamen Rider Fourze, Kamen Rider Series
Genre: Epilogue, Gen, Magical Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 05:56:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3108578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/predilection/pseuds/predilection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gentaro wishes for the Fourze driver back. Then the dreams start.</p><p>An epilogue of sorts for Kamen Rider Fourze.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Star Light, Star Bright

**Author's Note:**

> This story contains spoilers for the end of the series and for Movie War Ultimatum.
> 
> At the end of Movie War Ultimatum, Kengo says that the Fourze driver will find its way back to Gentaro. Here's how I think that happens.

Gentaro's marking papers in the teacher's lounge afterschool when he gets the call. It's from Eiji Hino who asks for support taking down a Foundation X base he uncovered. Gentaro starts making plans to meet Eiji before he remembers that he doesn't have the Fourze driver any more.

For the first time, he considers what the destruction of the driver means. He doesn't regret what he did -- destroying the driver ended up saving his students, after all -- but now he feels its loss. He realizes that if he needs to defend his students, if other Astro Switches activate, or if other riders call on his help, he won't be able to transform into Fourze.

He ends up giving Ryusei's number to Eiji, but knowing he'll definitely get more calls like this in the future, Gentaro promises himself he'll do his best to get the driver back.

*

The next day after his classes end, Gentaro visits Kengo at his work. He finds Kengo sitting at his desk, which is covered with papers and what look like mechanical parts.

"Can you re-create the Fourze driver?" Gentaro asks him, ignoring the visitor's chairs and instead sitting on the emptiest-looking corner of his desk.

Kengo's lips quirk up at one side like he's amused. "I was wondering when you'd ask me that." He pokes at his laptop for a minute, and then turns it so Gentaro can see the screen. There's some sort of file open filled with mathematical calculations. Gentaro doesn't understand any of it.

"Emoto created the drivers using his data on the Core Switch," Kengo explains. "I've been trying to recreate his work."

Gentaro grins, because it's just like Kengo to be on top of this issue before Gentaro even considered it. "Any luck?" Gentaro asks.

Kengo grimaces. "I don't have enough data. If we still had the Core Switch, I could probably figure it out, but otherwise..." He sighs. 

Gentaro leans over to pat Kengo on the back. "You're doing good work and you don't have to do it alone," he reminds Kengo. "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find a way to get the driver back."

*

Gentaro has a habit of staring up at the sky every night before he goes to bed. He started doing it when Yuki went up into orbit the first time as a small way of reminding himself that a good friend of his was up there fulfilling her dreams. He ends up staring at the moon sometimes too, remembering the Rabbit Hutch and the good times the Kamen Rider Club had up there. 

Tonight, he looks up at the sky and thinks of the way Yuki used to pray to space, hoping the stars would help her reach their heights.

For the first time since he was a kid, Gentaro makes a wish. He doesn't know who he's making the wish to -- whether it's to space or to the stars or to something else entirely -- but he makes the wish from deep in his heart.

He asks for the Fourze driver back and for the Core Switch to be found.

As if the universe is confirming it received his request, he sees a shooting star streak across the night sky.

*

Gentaro visits JK the following week.

"Gentaro!" JK shouts when Gentaro arrives at this office. "Am I happy to see you!"

Gentaro's confused by this warm reception given that he forgot to call in advance and that he feels like he might be interrupting JK's work.

"Oi, JK," an older man calls out. "You better not use your visitor as an excuse to extend your deadline."

"Uh, I can come back," Gentaro says.

"But you came all this way," JK says, beaming mischievously and walking over to Gentaro. He places his hands on Gentaro's shoulders and gently pushes him towards the door.

"I'll be back, boss. If I'm not, I'll get you your article by tomorrow morning," JK says with a wink, and Gentaro, who heard JK use similar lines on their teachers in high school, realizes what's going on and lets himself be pushed.

Once they're outside, JK lets out a sigh of relief. "You're a lifesaver," he says. "What's up?"

Gentaro tells JK about the renewed search for the Core Switch.

"I'll keep an ear out," JK says, smiling. "As always."

"Thank you," Gentaro says.

"What are friends for," JK says and that makes Gentaro grin.

"You want to go out for udon?" JK asks suddenly.

Gentaro snorts, amused. "Don't you have an article to write?" 

JK waves a hand around dismissively. "It's due in ten minutes and I've barely written half of it. It's going to be late no matter what. So let's go have some fun."

*

For five nights in a row, Gentaro's dreams all feature a soft blue light. The light reminds him of the way Kengo glowed after he found out he was the Core Child, but it's not quite as vibrant. 

The light creeps through his dreams and makes everything it touches in them shine. One night, he dreams of administering an exam and his class is slowly enveloped by the brightness until he can't see anything anymore. Another night, he's back in the Rabbit Hutch until that is blanketed in light too.

On the fifth and final night of these dreams, he wakes before dawn. He raises a hand to rub at his eyes and immediately recoils. 

He's probably imagining things, but for a split second, he's sure he saw his hand glowing.

*

He visits Tomoko on the weekend. Ryusei answers her door and it takes Gentaro a minute to realize that Ryusei is probably staying with Tomoko while he's in Japan. Gentaro doesn't say anything, but privately he's glad their relationship seems to be working out despite the fact that it's often a long distance one. 

"Gentaro?" Ryusei asks, surprised.

Gentaro rubs the back of his neck, sheepish. "Sorry to come by like this. I wanted to ask Tomoko for a favour."

*

After explaining the situation, Gentaro ends up sitting with Tomoko and Ryusei on her kitchen floor. Tomoko picks up her snake skin and holds it between her hands. "This may not work," she warns Gentaro.

"It's worth a try," he tells her, trying to be encouraging.

She closes her eyes and chants something that he doesn't understand. At times like this, he still finds her a little spooky, but that doesn't make him like her less. Gentaro accepts and appreciates her for all that she is.

She shakes the snake skin in the air, and a minute or so later, she opens her eyes and says, "Huh." 

"Did you sense the Core Switch?" Gentaro asks.

"I think so," she says. 

Gentaro shares a look with Ryusei that's both surprised and excited.

"Where is it?" Ryusei asks.

Tomoko frowns. "That's the problem. I sense it here."

"Here?" Gentaro asks, looking around the kitchen and at the shelves in the corner filled with Tomoko's jars of dead insect parts and other things Gentaro would prefer not to think about.

"Here," she repeats, gesturing to the air directly around them.

They go through their pockets and then through most of the kitchen cupboards (Gentaro lets Tomoko tackle her shelves), but they don't find any evidence of the Core Switch.

Just to be sure, Tomoko does her tracking spell again and it still says the switch is in the room.

"Sorry," she says afterwards. "I told you that this doesn't always work." 

She looks so disappointed that Gentaro takes her hands in his (after she's put down the snake skin, of course) and thanks her sincerely for trying.

*

Gentaro gazes at the moon later that night and wonders where the Core Switch could possibly be hiding.

*

Miu visits him the following weekend. Every few weeks, she drops by his apartment and they sit on his couch and chat. She tells him about her adventures in the modeling industry and he tells her about his students. He likes her visits and thinks it's great that they're still able keep in touch like this.

Today he tells her about getting the call from Eiji and everything that came afterwards. Miu is smiling at him before he even finishes his recounting of what happened. 

Gentaro can't figure out why she seems so happy considering that he was telling her about how he felt powerless, but then she tells him, "You're still Kamen Rider Fourze, Gentaro, even if you don't have your driver anymore."

"What?" he asks.

"You're still Fourze," she repeats. "Even now, your priority is helping people." 

Gentaro hasn't thought about it like that.

"You know," she continues. "Most of us in the Kamen Rider Club never had any special powers and look at everything we were able to do." 

She reaches over and places her hand on his. "What I'm saying is that without a driver, there are some fights you have to sit out, but that doesn't make you any less of a hero. I get that, the rest of the Kamen Rider Club gets that, and I'm betting that the other riders get that too."

She's telling him to be kinder to himself, he realizes. He feels his heart swell and he beams at her. "That was well said, chairman."

She laughs and says, "Of course it was. Now tell me more about your visit with Tomoko."

*

He dreams of Nadeshiko in her rider form gleefully soaring around the satellites of Jupiter.

"I hope you're having a great adventure!" he tells her sincerely even though he doesn't seem to have a body in this dream.

"Gentaro!" she shouts as she continues to fly through space. "You should come explore the galaxy with me!"

For some reason, his body-less dream-self replies, "I'd love to, but I can't fly. I don't have any wings."

She laughs and says, "Yes, you do."

Suddenly he's Fourze and flying next to her, her hand in his. "You still have wings", she tells him. "You never lost them." Then she starts to glow blue and he wakes up.

*

Yuki is assigned to another orbital mission, and Shun and JK team up throw her a party the day before she's scheduled to launch back into space.

The night before the party, Gentaro calls her and asks if she wants to hang out.

"I'm going over to Kengo's tonight," she says. In high school, Yuki and Kengo slept over at each other's houses sometimes. They used to set up a telescope, and weather permitting, view the cosmos. Gentaro was invited along a few times and he remembers once using the telescope to try to find the Rabbit Hutch on the surface of the moon.

"You should come too," Yuki says. "It'll be like old times."

*

Gentaro goes.

They end up talking so much that the telescope never leaves its case. Yuki tells them more stories about her last mission and Kengo discusses the studies he's been conducting on Cosmic Energy.

When it gets late, Kengo brings out a futon and bedding for him. They set it up on his living room floor. Yuki claims the couch ("It's too small for you anyway, Gentaro," she points out), so there's only a coffee table between them when they finally settle into bed for the night.

After Kengo retreats to his own room and the lights are off, Gentaro asks her, "Are you looking forward to going back into space?"

"Of course!" she answers immediately, though a moment later she admits, "But I miss you all when I'm up there. I know we get to video chat sometimes, but it's not the same."

"I miss you too," he tells her. "It's been good to have you around these past few months."

A comfortable silence settles between them after that and Gentaro's just starting to doze when Yuki says, "When you get the driver back, you should come visit me in orbit."

He hasn't thought about visiting her like that before, but now that she mentions it, he considers how awesome that could be. "I look forward to it," he says brightly.

 

*

Gentaro wakes up in the middle of the night with a start, though he's not sure what woke him. He doesn't remember dreaming and Kengo's living room is quiet except for the soft sound of Yuki's breathing.

Gentaro groans and, hoping to go back to sleep, rolls over onto his stomach. His stomach lands uncomfortably on something large, hard, and unevenly shaped. It rocks under his weight and he immediately jolts awake.

"Waaaaaah!" he shrieks as he quickly brings himself to his feet to get away from whatever is on his futon.

He hears Yuki call his name and ask him if he's okay, but he's not sure how to answer. He has no idea what he could've landed on.

Seconds later, the overheard light turns on revealing Kengo standing in the doorway in his pajamas looking hurried. "What happened?" he asks.

"There was--" Gentaro starts to say, but when he looks down to figure out what was under the covers with him, his words get stuck in his throat.

Wrapped snuggly around his waist is the Fourze driver.

"The driver!" Yuki exclaims as Gentaro realizes that it must've been what he felt.

He slowly reaches for it. Its contours and angles are exactly how he remembers them, and the four switches that were in the driver when it was destroyed are also present.

He looks to Kengo and then to Yuki in shock.

"How in the world..." Kengo says.

"Is that for real?" Yuki asks.

Gentaro grins at her. "There's one way to find out."

He hits all four of the switches, raises an arm into the air and shouts, "Henshin!"

A familiar power envelops him making him feel strong and invulnerable, and he knows immediately that this is no trick. The Fourze driver is back.

The second he's done shouting about space, he pats the driver affectionately and tells it, "Welcome back, buddy!" 

*

Kengo pokes and prods at the driver for the next hour. Kengo's coffee table is consumed by his laptop and a whole lot of machinery that looks like it could've came from the Rabbit Hutch.

"Are you sure it just appeared on you?" Kengo asks Gentaro again.

Yuki yawns from where she's slumped against one side of the coffee table. Gentaro who's sitting next to her and across from Kengo says, "What other explanation is there?"

"Drivers don't just appear," Kengo says. "They need to be created."

"Maybe it realized you still needed it so it came back," Yuki says and yawns again. She was energetic about the return of the driver before, but now the late hour seems to be catching up with her.

"Can we figure this out in the morning?" Gentaro suggests and then finds himself yawning as well. "Yuki's exhausted and so am I."

Kengo appears to be too keyed up to sleep, but he grabs his laptop and his collection of machinery, and carries them to his bedroom to presumably continue to work some more. He takes the Fourze driver with him.

Gentaro helps Yuki up and she collapses onto the couch.

"I'm glad it's back," she mumbles sleepily.

"Me too," he tells her as he settles back onto the futon. 

He feels calm in a way he hasn't since he realized that he needed the driver again, and falls asleep almost immediately.

*

The next morning, Gentaro and Yuki make breakfast before they poke their heads into Kengo's room.

Kengo's fast asleep. It's obvious that he continued working well into the night -- he's slumped against the side of his bed, and his head and arms rest on top of the covers just inches from his open laptop. The Fourze driver sits next to it with wires sticking out of it.

Gentaro walks over to him and while calling Kengo's name, gently nudges him in the shoulder.

Kengo blinks his eyes open and stretches his arms up over his head. "What time is it?" he asks groggily.

"Late enough that we made breakfast," Yuki tells him.

Gentaro offers him a hand to help him to his feet. Kengo accepts it, but the second their skin touches, there's a flash of light so bright that Gentaro has to close his eyes.

When he opens them again, Yuki and Kengo are gapping at him.

"You're glowing!" Yuki exclaims.

Gentaro looks down at himself and yelps because Yuki is right. He's surrounded by a soft blue light. He recognises it -- it's the same light from his dreams.

"What is this?" Gentaro asks, starting to panic. He raises his arms away from his body and fidgets.

Kengo, who fell backwards onto the ground when they touched, brings himself to his feet. As he stares at Gentaro, a faraway look crosses his face. "Oh," he says. "I understand now."

Before he can ask Kengo for an explanation, Kengo reaches towards him with his right hand. Gentaro follows the movement with his eyes, so he both sees and feels it when Kengo's fingers go straight through his shirt and into his chest. 

Gentaro knows that Kengo, as the Core Child, can pass through solid objects, but even so, this is unexpected.

"What the--" Gentaro starts to say but then he feels something warm in his chest. The warmth rapidly expands outwards to his shoulders and thighs and then to his fingers and toes. Gentaro blinks and the next thing he knows, he's alone on the surface of the moon, the Earth shining in the sky above him. 

He knows immediately this place is not what it seems. Unlike the real surface of the moon, the gravity is just like Earth's, and he can breathe just fine without any kind of protection.

"Where am I?" he asks in alarm.

He glances down himself and isn't comforted by the fact that he's still glowing.

"Yuki? Kengo?" he calls out. His voice reverberates strangely, but there's no other sound.

He sees something moving towards him in the distance. As it gets closer, he's able to tell that it looks like a small ball of blue light.

The ball stops in front of him, hovering at waist height. He doesn't know what it is, but he wonders if he can be its friend. Maybe it can help him figure out what's going on.

"Hello," Gentaro says. 

The ball bounces up and down slightly and Gentaro thinks it might be saying hello back.

He smiles and says, "I'm Gentaro Kisaragi and I want to be your friend." He holds out a hand for it to shake.

The ball wobbles again and then it seems to shimmer. The intensity of its light begins to decrease and Gentaro notices that there's something at the centre of the ball -- some item that's producing the light. As the light continues to dim, Gentaro realizes what it is he's looking at. It's a switch. More specifically it's--

"The Core Switch!" Gentaro exclaims.

The glow from it fades entirely, and it seems so different from his dreams where the light always increased in brightness. It makes him wonder, "Were those dreams you trying to communicate with me?"

As if in response, the switch moves from side to side in short little movements.

"They were, weren't they?" Gentaro says and then asks, "Where are we?"

The switch starts to glow again and then it darts forward towards him. He doesn't have a chance to move out of the way before it's hitting him in the chest directly above his heart.

Gentaro blinks and suddenly he's back in Kengo's room, staring at Kengo's hand as it passes through his ribcage. 

Kengo pulls his hand out of Gentaro's chest, his fingers closed in a fist, and the moment he's no longer in contact with Gentaro, Gentaro stops glowing.

"Kengo, what's going on?" Gentaro asks. This is strange, even by Gentaro's standards.

Kengo opens his hand, and resting in the centre of his palm is the Core Switch.

Gentaro feels his jaw drop. Did Kengo just pull that out of--

Was it _in_ him this whole time?

"The Core Switch!" Yuki shouts. 

"But how?" Gentaro asks.

Kengo smiles fondly as he stares down at it. "It was Gamo," Kengo says.

"Gamo?" Gentaro asks, still very confused.

"I can interface with the switch now. I know what happened that night -- the night Gamo surrendered," Kengo says. He begins to glow light blue and the light is much more brilliant than both the light from his dreams and the light that he himself had given off only moments ago. 

"Gamo used Aquarius' powers to repair the Core Switch," Kengo continues. "The second it was whole again, I reappeared. He then used Virgo's abilities to transport me to my home."

"That's why you woke up in your own bed," Gentaro says when he realizes what Kengo is saying.

Kengo nods. "But that's not all he did. He also used Virgo to hide the switch somewhere he knew it would be safe."

"In me?" Gentaro asks. He just saw it with his own eyes and he still finds it hard to believe.

"He wasn't wrong," Kengo points out. "It was safe."

Gentaro thinks about how he, Ryusei and Tomoko ended up tearing apart her kitchen for something that _was_ actually in the room with them, now that he thinks about it. 

Tomoko was right, after all. He can't wait to tell her.

"And the driver?" Yuki asks.

Kengo stares at the Core Switch for a moment before answering. "Apparently the Core Switch can create a driver if given the correct command. Gentaro made the command just over a month ago. It just took it some time to build up the energy it needed to fulfil the request."

"Command?" Gentaro asks, and then remembers the shooting star. He laughs, delighted. "Oh! Was that you?" he asks the switch.

Yuki asks, "What did it do?" 

"It heard me when I made a wish," Gentaro explains, grinning. "I think it also tried to talk to me in my dreams."

"A switch can't talk," Kengo says. 

Gentaro remembers his dreams, in particular the one about Nadeshiko, and asks, "Are you sure about that?"

*

It's on the way to her party that Yuki brings up something Gentaro hasn't considered. She asks Kengo, "Now that we have the Core Switch and the Fourze driver, are you going to go to the Presenter?"

Kengo immediately shakes his head. "No," he replies. "The Fourze driver is important here on Earth." 

Just as Gentaro is about to tell Kengo that he's important on Earth too, Kengo says, "Let's keep trying to find a way that we can all go together."

*

Gentaro stops having dreams featuring blue light after the sleepover at Kengo's, and Gentaro figures that he won't have those dream anymore now that the Core Switch is no longer inside of him. But a few weeks later, Gentaro dreams that he's on the surface of the moon again. 

This time, standing in front of him is someone who looks exactly like he did in high school. His younger self is glowing light blue and Gentaro knows it's the Core Switch.

"I like your wings," it says, smiling, and gestures towards Gentaro. 

Suddenly, Gentaro is Fourze, his body encased in white armour.

"I get it now," Gentaro tells it. "What you meant by 'wings' back then. Because you were inside me, I never really lost my ability to become Fourze. I just thought I did. You were trying to support me."

His younger self beams at him.

Gentaro grins back. He wasn't aware of it at the time, but for over five years, he and the Core Switch had each other's backs. Gentaro kept it safe and the Core Switch helped him out when he needed it.

He knows the Core Switch is his friend, and has been for some time, but he wants to make it official. He holds out his hand for the Core Switch to take. His younger self grasps his hand, and Gentaro is pleasantly surprised that it already knows all the moves to his special handshake.

"We're already friends, after all," it explains. 

"Yeah," Gentaro says. "You're my bud."

His younger self glows brighter and brighter and then Gentaro wakes up. 

*

Two months after the driver returns, Gentaro receives an urgent call from his rider sempai in Futo. Foundation X is on the move again, and Double and Accel have their hands full with a disturbance on the other end of town.

Gentaro transforms into Fourze and, thanks to the Rocket Switch, is able to quickly provide the support they need.

*

Before he goes to bed each night, Gentaro stares up at the sky longer than he ever did before. The Core Switch reminded him that there are more beings in the universe than he could ever imagine. 

As he gazes at the stars, he looks forward to befriending as many of them as he possibly can.


End file.
